The biggest winners and losers of 2017 NBA free agency

Winner: Denver Nuggets

The Denver Nuggets‘ playoff push sputtered at the end last year, but with another season of development for Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Gary Harris, plus the signing of Paul Millsap to address the team’s biggest position of need, the hatches have been battened down.

Whether it’s actually enough to make Denver a playoff team in 2018 remains to be seen, but Millsap is an excellent two-way addition, especially for the Nuggets’ 29th-ranked defense.

Although he’s already 32 years old, Millsap was only signed to a three-year deal as the Nuggets’ biggest free agency acquisition in decades. This young team on the rise needed a talented power forward, a defensive presence and a veteran leader, and it checked off every box by adding Millsap.

Loser: Atlanta Hawks

Remember two years ago, when the Atlanta Hawks didn’t trade Al Horford and lost him for nothing in free agency? And then remember the most recent trade deadline, when the Hawks didn’t trade Paul Millsap and lost him for nothing in free agency? Good times!

To be fair, re-signing a 32-year-old Millsap to a three- or four-year max deal wouldn’t have helped anything, but Atlanta’s front office messed up by not moving its assets when the sun had clearly set on its time as Eastern contenders the moment Kyle Korver was traded away.

The writing was on the wall, but the Hawks refused to read it. Now, they enter a rebuild without a single starter from the 60-win team from three years ago, or a sure thing to build around. (No offense, Dennis Schroder and John Collins.) They have two 2018 first round picks coming from Houston (top-three protected) and Minnesota (lottery-protected), but those probably won’t be particularly valuable either.